Take My Hand
by Tarafina
Summary: Patience is a virtue. :chlollie:


**Title**: Take My Hand  
**Category**: Smallville  
**Song**: Come Back To Me – Trading Yesterday**  
Rating**: T**  
Genre**: Romance/**  
Ship**: Chloe/Oliver  
**Challenge**: Music/Fic**  
Word Count**: 1,001**  
Summary**: Patience is a virtue.

**_Take My Hand_**

1/1

_If I hold out my hand  
would it change where you're standing now?  
Just come back to me_

Leave all you've found  
that's keeping your heart on the ground  
just come back to me

So afraid for love to come around your heart again  
when it's the only thing you need  
just come back to me

_This is my only hope  
That the love that will not let me go  
Will find its way back into your life  
So I will not close my eyes  
Until I see you by my side  
Loving me tonight_

_Come Back To Me__ – _**Trading Yesterday**

He watches and he waits and his patience runs thin, but he holds out hope.

She works and she hides and she avoids what he offers, what's so plain in every smile he shares with her.

She laughs off his suggestions, his flirting.

But he doesn't stop, doesn't give up like she expects. "You busy tonight, Sidekick?"

"Yes…" No. "I'm washing my hair." Pathetic.

He nods, takes it as she gives it. "When you're done, I'll still be here…"

She ignores it, the promise, the knowledge that he _will_.

She turns her back, walks away, pretends she doesn't see the way he sees her go and wishes she wasn't.

It doesn't matter what happens, where she is, he always gets there in time, he always makes that grand entrance with the added smug arrogance that so embodies him.

"Do I have a tracking device on me that I don't know of?" she snarks, when he just-so-happens to arrive in the nick of time, like always.

He grins. "Maybe I know you better than you think I do."

And she wants to hate that he's right, but deep down she cherishes it. She loves knowing that he can read her without her having to say a word, that he knows what she'll do before she does, and that she knows him just the same.

She's standing on the edge, on the precipice, and he's got a hand out for her. Just take it, her heart yells. But her head never agrees; it's seen her heart shattered one too many times. Foolish heart, always leaning on heroes that eventually fade away from her life. Or is it her that fades? Another taking her place. Someone else for heroic hearts to fall for while she stands by the wayside, looking in, wishing it was still her.

"I'm persistent," he says.

She thinks she's more stubborn; that her head will outdo her heart. Please, just this once.

But her heart aches, her body visibly shakes. She wants to slap Clark Kent, she wants to shake him for being the reason for all of this. The reason that she can't let herself love openly, that she can't wear her heart on her sleeve like she once did.

"It's still there," he tells her. "It's just a little scuffed."

"Yeah?" She shakes her head, disbelieving. "I'm starting to think it was stomped on one too many times."

He tucks her hair behind her ear, like he's prone to do, and when his fingers trace her cheek she feels loved. "So maybe it's hiding… And when it's ready, it'll resurface."

He leaves, lets her think, and she doesn't worry because she knows… he always comes back.

She avoids him; puts up a good fight, really.

"When are you going to let your guard down?" he sighs.

She's angry; denial is a long road.

"Never." She won't look at him, refuses to see that look on his face; the sadness, the resignation. "Every time I let it down, I get run over… So why not avoid the whole thing?"

"This time it's different…" he murmurs confidently.

She wonders when her own certainty dimmed; when she became so sure that nobody would love her like he's offering, like he already does.

"No…" She smiles at him, her eyes stinging. "You think it will but it won't… Someone else will come along and I'll just be Sidekick again."

He turns away and now he looks hurt. "One day you're gonna trust me… and maybe then you'll know that loving you isn't so easy to get over."

He leaves and he doesn't come back for so long it actually _hurts_. She wants to cry, she wants to chase after him, but she won't let herself.

And when he returns she feels relief like never before and her heart beats rapidly as he walks into her tower, into her life, like he was always meant to be there. She fists her hands so she won't reach for him, but he's so close, he's so near she can breathe his breath and feel his heat.

"If you'd let me, I'd be everything you need…" Reaching for her, he cups her face, staring so reverently into her eyes. "You can fight this, _me_, all you want… but one of these days, you're gonna see it… And I'm gonna be right there waiting… Always."

She closes her eyes, wonders when the comfort of his hands on her face will be a memory, when the knowledge that where everyone else has failed he wouldn't might fade. And then he's kissing her forehead and she can feel his breath against her lips as he draws away, lingers, and lets her go.

It isn't until she's alone that she realizes what she's doing. Where Clark has pushed her away, tried to shield her, Oliver hasn't. He saves a place by his side for her, knows that she'll fill it, and even when she denies her own destiny he holds out hope. But she fights it, the possibility that maybe he's _the only one_.

The days seem longer when he's not in her immediate vicinity, the nights shorter. She stares at the desk he occupies with his work, where he mixes Queen Industries with League business, always on the ball, always looking for the next adventure. And when she crosses the room, he looks up at her, that same smile still in place. And she wonders how long she could've avoided it; those eyes and that smile and the way his whole body seems to relax in her presence.

"I might need a steady hand…" she admits. "I've fallen one too many times and I'm scared to do it again."

He stands, holds his own out and promises, "I'll catch you."

So she lets go and she takes his hand and when she breathes in there's overwhelming relief and finally, she can smile back. She can feel it too. And her heart isn't hiding anymore… It's in his capable hands.


End file.
